Music for TV extra 3

The strapline of extra 3 is: "The only satire show." It is an established political satire TV show produced by major north German public broadcaster NDR.

Despite being confined to a late slot on regional stations, the long-running show has built a loyal following since its inception in 1976 and constantly manages to re-invent itself.

Overall, I submitted three items to the show, and two of them were broadcast, whereas the third, a song about Innovation and Justice in mock support of the government party, was released on CD only, because I was in Ireland at the time of the scheduled video shoot.

Trostlied - a consolation song

On 10 February 2001, I appeared in a video performing a comforting song for the opposition, who at that time was dealing with the aftermath of a major Kohl-era party funding scandal.

The song itself addresses two CDU party members directly, both at the time of writing (December 2012) prominent members of the current German government - Merkel and Schäuble.

The lyrics are full of puns and references to the political situation in 2001, and while the climax seems to instil hope in the two figures, the song ends with an expression of mistrust in the credibility of politicians.

As the production had a very short turnaround time, I could not work on my vocals as much as I would have liked, but the song was still good enough to be selected out of hundreds of submissions.

The music was produced in my home studio in Frankfurt with additional vocal recordings in a proper recording studio, and the video was shot in Hamburg.